Kemi Badenoch insists Britain must take more offensive action against Iran as she warned “we can’t stand by” and expect other nations to help us. The Tory leader, who will today unveil plans to boost defence spending by an extra £1.6billion a year through cutting welfare, said the UK “will be in a lot of trouble” if it does not join bombing raids after UK bases in Bahrain and Cyprus were attacked.

Mrs Badenoch warned that allies in the Middle East “think that we’re abandoning them”. Writing in the Express, the Conservative party leader warns that Keir Starmer isn’t doing enough to protect British security by investing in our military fast enough. “The first job of any government is keeping its people safe. The Labour government is failing in that duty,” she says.

“In an increasingly dangerous world we cannot stand by and expect others to defend British troops and British assets.”

Her rallying cry came as the Prime Minister attempted to play down a mounting backlash over Britain’s lack of military preparations and the meltdown in the Special Relationship with Donald Trump. Standing by his decision to stop the US carrying out “offensive”airstrikes on Iran from UK bases, Sir Keir said he was providing “calm, level-headed leadership”.

He also said that the UK had been deploying resources such as anti-aircraft missiles to the region since December, despite anger at the apparent inability to protect RAF Akrotiri from Iranian reprisals. The PM said helicopters with capability to shoot down missiles and drones would be arriving in the Mediterranean on Friday, and more Typhoon jets were being deployed to Qatar.

“While the region has been plunged into chaos, my focus is providing calm, level-headed leadership in the national interest,” Sir Keir said.

There are claims that President Trump has taken to referring to Sir Keir as a “loser” in private. He has already publicly dismissed the premier as “no Churchill” after he refused to join the initial strikes on Saturday morning.

Sir Keir insisted Transatlantic ties were still working despite the spat, but said: “It’s for me as the British PM to take the decisions that I consider to be in the best interests of the UK.”

The Labour leader’s desperate efforts to get back on the front foot have been thrown into turmoil by news that more European countries are having to deploy forces to protect the crucial RAF Akrotiri base on Cyprus.

Spain is to join France, Italy and the Netherlands in sending its navy, with the UK not having any vessels in the area and Type 45 air defence destroyer HMS Dragon not even due to set off until next week.

Nigel Farage said Britain has been “humiliated” over the Government’s response to the conflict in the Middle East. Speaking at the launch of Reform’s Wales manifesto on Thursday, the party leader said Sir Keir Starmer was “incapable of making a decision”, describing him as a “follower and not a leader”.

“We find ourselves humiliated,” he said. “What was for centuries the greatest naval nation on Earth is now unable, for up to a fortnight, to send a Type 45 to Cyprus to defend British sovereign territory.”

The Middle East crisis has reignited the ongoing row over defence spending. Last year Sir Keir pledged to spend 2.5% of national economic output on core defence by April 2027. But he also set out an “ambition” to increase that spending to 3% of GDP in the next parliament.

Both the Tories and Reform UK are demanding the Prime Minister must go further and faster. Mrs Badenoch says that if her party returns to power after the next general election it will bring back the two-child benefit cap, which has been scrapped by Labour, saving more than £3.2 billion a year.

Of this, £1.6 billion will be allocated to defence spending. The Tories say this will help boost troop numbers by 20,000.

Mrs Badenoch said: “This Prime Minister’s priorities are completely wrong. As we saw at the Spring Statement this week, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have a plan to raise benefits and no plan for how to properly fund our armed forces.

“With a war in Europe and now also in the Middle East, it’s more important than ever that the government gives our military the backing it needs. Instead, Keir Starmer is pandering to his backbenchers with more welfare giveaways – he simply doesn’t have the backbone to take tough decisions.”

It was claimed on Friday that Sir Keir would not have survived in No10 if he had backed Mr Trump’s Iran strikes. A senior Labour MP has insisted Sir Keir “didn’t have a choice” about turning down the request following the by-election humiliation by anti-war Greens in Gorton & Denton.

Details have emerged of a bruising discussion at a meeting of the National Security Council last Friday, less than 24 hours before the American-Israeli strikes began.

Ed Miliband – nicknamed “Red Ed” and touted as a replacement leader – Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper are said to have urged Sir Keir to shun the US assault on Iran, pointing to the domestic political situation.